The dropping of the Atomic Bomb

[Royalty_of_Isreal]

I know that it wasn't wrong. Japan asked for it. It was just sad that we had to kill inoscent people for the emperor to Surreder.

[Shammu]

Wrong question to ask a WW2 history buff. I am also a moderator of a WW2 forum.

Yes dropping the atomic bomb, was a correct desicision. The lives saved for America was put at 3/4 of a million casulaties. The same number for Japan,if not more.I is esmated that dropping the atomic bomb, shaved off 18 months of the war.

Finally, we can never forget the maxim of Edmund Burke: "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing." The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor brought us into a war which we had vainly hoped to avoid. We could no longer "do nothing" but were compelled to "do something" to roll back the Japanese militarists. Victims of aggression have every right both to end the aggression and to prevent the perpetrator of it from continuing or renewing it. Our natural right of self defense as well as our moral duty to defeat tyranny justified our decision to wage the war and, ultimately, to drop the atomic bomb. We should expect political leaders to be guided by moral principles but this does not mean they must subject millions of people to needless injury or death out of a misplaced concern for the safety of enemy soldiers or civilians.

President Truman's decision to deploy atomic power in Japan
revealed a man who understood the moral issues at stake and who had  the courage to strike a decisive blow that quickly brought to an end the most destructive war in human history. Squeamishness is not a moral principle, but making the best decisions at the time, given the circumstances, is clear evidence that the decision maker is guided by morality.

Concerns about the amount of lethal radiation released by the bomb and the effects it had on the people in the surrounding area has added to the controversy over whether we were right to drop the bombs. "Everything up to two meters [away] was destroyed," said Nicholas Dainiak, an authority on radiation at Bridgeport Hospital. Dainiak has worked with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta on the subject of radiation and has done consulting work for medical treatment protocols for radiation accident victims. He worked with victims in Chernobyl, the site of the world's worst nuclear reactor accident in 1986. "All buildings were leveled from the blast itself," Dainiak said of the Hiroshima bombing. After the bomb was dropped, 15 percent of the energy released was from radiation. "People who felt the effects were out beyond two meters [away from the explosion]. Those are the people at risk for developing cancer," Dainiak said. Radiation victims became infected with leukemia first, with cases starting to appear about five years after the bombings. Cases continued to appear until about 1985. According to Dainiak, the second major problem was thyroid cancer, which appeared about 10 years after, with breast and lung cancer appearing about 20 years after the blast. However, Dainiak believes the greatest problems were psychological. "[The bombings were] so devastating it created the situation where they wanted to surrender," Dainiak said. Despite the severe medical problems the radiation caused, Dainiak still believes the U.S. made the right decision to bomb the two cities.

"It saved a lot of American lives. It probably saved a lot of Japanese lives. When you go to Japan and talk to the people, there are many mixed emotions. More lives were saved than lost," he said. While many believe using the atomic bomb saved lives by ending World War II without the invasion of Japan, others, like Marder, believe Japan might have been coaxed to surrender using less drastic means.

I have a feeling you would have had in Japan something 10 times worse than what is happening in Iraq. I think we avoided a period of constant turmoil and death and destruction of the United States military. I think they really did mankind a favor.

Resting in the arms of the Lord.
Bob

Isaiah 28:16 Therefore thus says the Lord God, Behold, I am laying in Zion for a foundation a Stone, a tested Stone, a precious Cornerstone of sure foundation; he who believes (trusts in, relies on, and adheres to that Stone) will not be ashamed or give way or hasten away [in sudden panic].

[Royalty_of_Isreal]

wow... u typed that? I agree that it was the right thing to do. *Pulls out shield to not get hurt*

[ollie]

I know that it wasn't wrong. Japan asked for it. It was just sad that we had to kill inoscent people for the emperor to Surreder.

Should this not be moved to the "Political" or "General Discussion" section of the forum?

[JimmySwift]

Hi all,

Interesting topic!

I think it's pretty hard to take an absolute stance on a topic like this, and to say that the U.S. did mankind a favour by killing hundreds of thousands of civilians.  To say such a thing would be to suggest that it is somehow "right" to kill innocents in war.  It is herein that I have my moral dilema.  I know full well that more people would have died had the bombs not been dropped, but I think the difference is, that those people would have been combatants, as opposed to civilians.

In the end, I think this is the sort of debate that will go on for decades, as it is certainly a global and geo-political turning point.  However, as it is to be dealt with in our own CU context, perhaps it would be more appropriate to call the event something other than "good"

cheers,

Jimmy

[Shammu]

Hi all,

Interesting topic!

I think it's pretty hard to take an absolute stance on a topic like this, and to say that the U.S. did mankind a favour by killing hundreds of thousands of civilians.  To say such a thing would be to suggest that it is somehow "right" to kill innocents in war.  It is herein that I have my moral dilema.  I know full well that more people would have died had the bombs not been dropped, but I think the difference is, that those people would have been combatants, as opposed to civilians.

cheers,

Jimmy

Hello Jimmy, the "civilians" killed were what they would have done, if they had dropped the bomb here. Do you know that in 1945, Japan fired, biologial weapon, off the coast of Oregon from a submarine? Those weapons, killed  people one family (5). Most people know about the fire bombs, that started a small, fire in Oregon. It's rare people know about the biologial weapons Japan made.

[JimmySwift]

Hi DW,

Thanks for the reply!

It is posible that had Japan developed a bomb of their own, then they would have used it against a civilian population.  However, I think that fact remains, that they did not have such a wepon, and so the point is probably somewhat moot.

In general, WW2 did fundamentally change the rules of warfare, and probably not for the better.  With all the indiscriminate bombing that took place, mostly by the Germans, British and Americans, it somehow became acceptable to view civilians as legitimate targets.  

It is very easy to blame wartime enemies for these transgressions, but I think part of being a decent member of a society, is also owning-up to the misdeeds of your own nation.  There is nothing unpatriotic about that kind of honesty.  In fact, I think it is probably more patriotic to admit fault, than to pretend that someone else is always to blame.  

In any event, I think my initial point, that the horrible results of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, be called something other than "good" still stands.

cheers,

Jimmy

[Soldier4Christ]

Hi Jimmy,

As I have said before no act of war is good, however I believe that sometimes such actions are necessary. Think what would have happened if we had not dropped those bombs on Japan. The war would have lasted much longer. Many, many more people would have died including civilians both in Japan and in the U.S not to mention all those civilians in the other countries that Japan was killing. The Japanese had plans of attacking the mainland of America. It would have been a very long drawn out bloody war and very difficult to say what the final outcome of it would have been. This war had to be ended and done so quickly.

[Shammu]

War is simply a nasty business

The evil that men do lives after them;The good is oft interred with their bones. - William Shakespeare